Fab Tool Biz Looks Cloudy


Amid a slowdown in the foundry and DRAM sectors, the outlook for the semiconductor equipment industry looks somewhat cloudy, if not challenging, in 2016. In fact, for equipment vendors, 2016 could resemble the lackluster year in 2015. In 2015, for example, capital spending in the foundry sector fell during the year, although NAND flash began to pick up steam. In 2015, though, the big stor... » read more

Rise Of The Old Fab


Growth in the [getkc id="260" comment="Internet of Everything"], along with the beginning of a shift toward systems in package, are creating buzz in a rather unlikely place—established and well-worn process nodes where equipment is scarce, semi-functional, and difficult to maintain. In the past, moving to the next node was a sign of progress, leaving behind the trailing edge of designs to ... » read more

What’s Next In Mobile Displays


The next wave of smartphones and wearables is invading the market. These systems will feature a new class of high-resolution displays, and in the near future displays will become foldable and rollable, although there are still some challenges with this technology. To be sure, mobile display technology is advancing on several fronts. On one front, for example, Apple and other systems vendor... » read more

Foundries Face Challenges in 2016


Generally, 2015 has been a challenging year in the foundry business. For one thing, the foundry industry will register modest growth in 2015. In addition, the foundry customer base is consolidating. And on the leading edge, foundries took longer than expected to ramp up their 16nm/14nm finFET processes. So, after an eventful year in 2015, what’s in store for the foundry business in 2016? I... » read more

When Order Matters


Debugging DP errors can be not only time-consuming, but also frustrating, when new errors seem to appear out of nowhere. The order in which you address DP errors can make a significant difference in the efficiency of your debug efforts. Learning the sequence of ordered DP debugging explained in this white paper can not only help you reduce the time you spend analyzing and fixing DP errors, but ... » read more

Betting On Wright’s Law


By Paul Heremans Most people know Moore’s Law as "the number of transistors on a chip doubles every two years." That interpretation was the consequence of economic considerations. Moore predicted that "the number of transistors on a chip will rise exponentially if the surface area stays the same, because that way the cost per unit of computing power for integrated transistors will decrease... » read more

The Next Resists…Continued


As previously discussed, conventional chemically-amplified resists are struggling to balance the competing requirements of EUV lithography. Simultaneously meeting the industry’s targets for resolution, sensitivity, and line-edge roughness may require new resist concepts. Inpria’s resist technology, based on tin-oxide nano clusters, is one possibility. Recently published work at SUNY Albany ... » read more

Resetting Expectations On Multi-Patterning Decomposition And Checking


As I said in Part 1 of this topic, it never ceases to amaze me how much confusion and misunderstanding there is when it comes to multi-patterning (MP) decomposition and checking. That entire first article only focused on the typical subjects I’ve had to discuss with customers regarding double-patterning (DP). I have to tell you that with the deployment of triple-patterning (TP) and quadruple-... » read more

Case Study: A CEO’s Journey And Learning In M&A


Executives at this year’s SEMI International Technology Partners Conference (ITPC) assessed a number of forces currently shaping the semiconductor industry, including such topics as Internet of Things (IoT) investment, mounting technology complexity, the ascent of China, and pervasive industry consolidation. Participants particularly valued ITPC as a thought-leadership platform for sharing st... » read more

Inside The SRC


Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk with Ken Hansen, the new president and chief executive of the Semiconductor Research Corp. (SRC), a U.S.-based technology research consortium. Prior to joining the SRC in May, Hansen was vice president and chief technology officer at Freescale. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: My impression is that the SRC allocates funding for va... » read more

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